EK Water Blocks Ready with Radeon RX 480 Full-coverage Block

btarunr · Jun 30, 2016

EK Water Blocks is ready with a full-coverage water block for AMD Radeon RX 480 (model: EK-FC RX-480). Designed for the reference-design RX 480 PCB, the block features a common coolant channel for the GPU, memory, and VRM, with a ridged coolant channel over the GPU for better heat dissipation. The block is 1-slot thick, and comes in four variants, exposed copper block with clear acrylic top, exposed copper with opaque POM acetal top, and nickel-plated copper with acrylic/acetal tops. Since the upcoming Radeon RX 470 features the same reference PCB design, this block could be compatible with that card, too. The company didn't reveal pricing.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

geon2k2 · Jun 30, 2016

I think they were also fooled by the AMD performance claims.
Otherwise, I don't see the point of this block.

Who would pay 200$ on a card and 100$ on a cooler, considering the overclocking is not even that great?

chief-gunney · Jun 30, 2016

RX480 out performs the gtx 970 at half the price and does so on day 1 with virtually no cooling with a 6 pin power connector and a beta driver and no overclock, LoL.
Most definitely Number 1 in it's class ATM. Can only get better.
Waterblock may be a better idea on the after market cards to come with modified boards and 8 pin connectors,
looking forward to the results.

the54thvoid · Jun 30, 2016

chief-gunney said:
RX480 out performs the gtx 970 at half the price and does so on day 1 with virtually no cooling with a 6 pin power connector and a beta driver and no overclock, LoL.
Most definitely Number 1 in it's class ATM. Can only get better.
Waterblock may be a better idea on the after market cards to come.
looking forward to the results.

Nothing wrong with a water block on a hot running, noisy card. That's the main draw.

OTOH, comparing to a 970 which is EOL is a bit naff. Need to compare to the GTX1060 when it comes out (in paper fashion) next week.

HD64G · Jun 30, 2016

If they weren't sure that 480 is a more than a good overclocker they wouldn't have it ready me thinks. Especially for a GOU of this price category. So, wait a bit for the custom oced ones.

chief-gunney · Jun 30, 2016

Gtx 1060? - http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gtx-1060-special-launch-event-july/ looks like 192 bit bus and 3g version (WTF?) for $250 and 6g version for 300$. Bet the actual sale price will be much higher too.

RX480 custom cards look sweet - http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-asus-strix-msi-gaming/ - they've reported clock speeds up to 1.6ghz
Now a waterblock on them looks worth it.

GhostRyder · Jun 30, 2016

chief-gunney said:
Gtx 1060? - http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gtx-1060-special-launch-event-july/- looks like 192 bit bus and 3g version (WTF?) for $250 and 6g version for 300$. Bet the actual sale price will be much higher too.

RX480 custom cards look sweet - http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-asus-strix-msi-gaming/ - they've reported clock speeds up to 1.6ghz
Now a waterblock on them looks worth it.

Well thats if we can believe them, they like alot of click bait articles and claim things that many times end up being false. That being said they have been right before and this is not a stretch. If its true it just means its going to make the card that much better and make AMD look a bit foolish for not at least putting an 8pin connector on the card.

Waterblocks for this card are fine. People like water cooling even medium end products so I see no problem with this especially if an RX 480X comes later the design can be reused. Either way you don't have to go all in on a card to want to water cool it.

ZoneDymo · Jun 30, 2016

I would be very interested to see how this influences overclocking results.
On the current card it seems they pushed the clocks as far as they could within the safety margin leaving no room for OCing.
But with this there maybe some room.

peche · Jun 30, 2016

chief-gunney said:
RX480 out performs the gtx 970 at half the price and does so on day 1 with virtually no cooling with a 6 pin power connector and a beta driver and no overclock, LoL.

outperforms?
nice Try ....

here you could see more about how the RX 480 8GB gets smoked by other cards....

Regards,

GhostRyder · Jun 30, 2016

peche said:
outperforms?
nice Try ....

here you could see more about how the RX 480 8GB gets smoked by other cards....

Regards,

That's one game...Not the average...So the truth actually is...

It is better than the 970. Its exactly where everyone has been saying it is, in between the 970 and 980 performance wise (Or for AMD, between the 390 and the 390X). Its also on a pretty premature driver as this is the first card from this generation so performance will as with any card regardless of the company go up as time moves on.

dozenfury · Jun 30, 2016

Interesting, a $130 water block for a last-gen speed card that should cost $150. I can't imagine they'd sell many of these blocks. I agree that they probably got fooled a bit by the pre-release hype. Putting a water block on anything slower than a 980ti or 1070 seems pretty silly.

As it turned out, the 480 is more of a next-gen version of the 380, and people wouldn't watercool that.

peche · Jun 30, 2016

GhostRyder said:
It is better than the 970. Its exactly where everyone has been saying it is, in between the 970 and 980 performance wise (Or for AMD, between the 390 and the 390X). Its also on a pretty premature driver as this is the first card from this generation so performance will as with any card regardless of the company go up as time moves on.

well ... we will see with new drivers i guess...

Regards,

ShurikN · Jun 30, 2016

Its a small block for a small card, what makes you think it will cost $130

HD64G · Jun 30, 2016

dozenfury said:
Interesting, a $130 water block for a last-gen speed card that should cost $150. I can't imagine they'd sell many of these blocks. I agree that they probably got fooled a bit by the pre-release hype. Putting a water block on anything slower than a 980ti or 1070 seems pretty silly.

As it turned out, the 480 is more of a next-gen version of the 380, and people wouldn't watercool that.

Agreed! RX480 on water will reach stock 980Ti probably...

the54thvoid · Jun 30, 2016

HD64G said:
Agreed! RX480 on water will reach stock 980Ti probably...

You're quite the optimist. It's need to be 33% faster in performance. That's quite some ask....

Let's not get too ahead of things and start more hype. If it overclocks past 980ti, it beats Fury X too. It's not high end.

Deeveo · Jun 30, 2016

It will have it's niche, if the reference model had a second 6pin connector for extra power you could propably get some decent clocks with a water cooler on it.

newtekie1 · Jun 30, 2016

With the amount of power the reference PCB pulls through the PCI-E slot, I wouldn't want to overclock it at all, so this block is kind of pointless...

peche · Jun 30, 2016

Deeveo said:
It will have it's niche, if the reference model had a second 6pin connector for extra power you could propably get some decent clocks with a water cooler on it.

newtekie1 said:
With the amount of power the reference PCB pulls through the PCI-E slot, I wouldn't want to overclock it at all, so this block is kind of pointless...

im pretty sure will be custom PCB's with Extra connectors....

TheinsanegamerN · Jun 30, 2016

peche said:
well ... we will see with new drivers i guess...

Regards,

Driver won't fix the disappointing power consumption.

newtekie1 · Jun 30, 2016

peche said:
im pretty sure will be custom PCB's with Extra connectors....

And this waterblock won't fit them.

1rishPredator · Jun 30, 2016

From what I've seen, the RX 480 gains a lot when overclocked when compared to the previous 28nm R9 range. The tiny stock cooler heatsink and 150w power limit really hold back this card. It makes no sense to put a water block on the reference designed PCB. A water block on an aftermarket PCB with 8pin power would be great. It would be R9 Fury performance for much less money.

However, the aftermarket coolers are coming very soon. Look out for custom boards with added power connectors. I think the RX 480 will be very similar to the R9 290 launch, but even better with better cooling.

peche · Jun 30, 2016

newtekie1 said:
And this waterblock won't fit them.

great point ...

Ungari · Jun 30, 2016

geon2k2 said:
I think they were also fooled by the AMD performance claims.
Otherwise, I don't see the point of this block.

Who would pay 200$ on a card and 100$ on a cooler, considering the overclocking is not even that great?

I for one am surprised that EK would produce a waterblock for such a low cost card. It seems like the cost would put the user into a higher tiered video card.

Ungari · Jun 30, 2016

GhostRyder said:
If its true it just means its going to make the card that much better and make AMD look a bit foolish for not at least putting an 8pin connector on the card.

Ed from Sapphire said the Nitro version will have an 8-pin connector, but that the 8-pin is unnecessary!
I'm guessing the user can decide to use only a 6-pin to insert in the slot.

TheoneandonlyMrK · Jul 1, 2016

I'm on the soon as list for 2 of these ,and a second 480 next month (arives sat),yeah my Fx will bottleneck the cheap out of them but I'm jibering over the folding performance /efficiency.

System Name	RBMK-1000
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Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5600@80W
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Processor	AMD R5 3600
Motherboard	Asus x570 Strix-E
Cooling	custom water (360+280 rads) EK cpu and gpu blocks
Memory	Corsair Vengeance pro 3600
Video Card(s)	rx vega 64
Storage	XPG SX8200 pro NVME Gen3 500g, Samsung 860 evo 500g,
Display(s)	Benq Zowie XL 2730
Case	Phanteks Eclipse p600s
Audio Device(s)	Razor Leviathan
Power Supply	SEASONIC Platinum 850w CORSAIR HX1000,
Mouse	Zowie EC1-b, Glorias model-O
Keyboard	Corsair K70 Lux
Software	WINDOWS 10, 64BIT

EK Water Blocks Ready with Radeon RX 480 Full-coverage Block

btarunr

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geon2k2

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HD64G

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peche

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the54thvoid

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